Use the CData JDBC Driver for SingleStore in MicroStrategy

MicroStrategy is an analytics and mobility platform that enables data-driven innovation. When you pair MicroStrategy with the CData JDBC Driver for SingleStore, you gain database-like access to live SingleStore data from MicroStrategy, expanding your reporting and analytics capabilities. In this article, we walk through creating a database instance for SingleStore in MicroStrategy Developer and create a Warehouse Catalog for the SingleStore data.

The CData JDBC Driver offers unmatched performance for interacting with live SingleStore data in MicroStrategy due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from MicroStrategy to SingleStore, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to SingleStore and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations (often SQL functions and JOIN operations) client-side. With built-in dynamic metadata querying, you can visualize and analyze SingleStore data using native MicroStrategy data types.

Connect to SingleStore in MicroStrategy Developer

You can connect to SingleStore in MicroStrategy Developer by adding a database instance based on the CData JDBC Driver for SingleStore.^* Before you begin, you will need to install the JDBC Driver for SingleStore on the machine hosting the MicroStrategy Intelligence Server that your instance of MicroStrategy Developer is connected to.

1. Open MicroStrategy Developer and select a Project Source.
2. Navigate to Administration -> Configuration Managers -> Database Instances and right-click to add a new instance. 👁 Create a new Database Instance
   
3. Name the instance, select Generic DBMS as the database connection type, and create a new database connection. 👁 Create a new database connection.
   
4. In the database connection wizard, name the connection and create a new Database Login name, setting the user and password for SingleStore. 👁 Create a new database login.
   
5. On the Advanced tab for the connection wizard, set the additional connection string parameters as follows.
   • Add the JDBC keyword to the connection string.
   • Set MSTR_JDBC_JAR_FOLDER to the path of the directory containing the JAR file for the JDBC driver. (C:\Program Files\CData JDBC Driver for SingleStore\lib\ on Windows.)
   • Set DRIVER to cdata.jdbc.singlestore.SingleStoreDriver, the driver class.
   • Set URL to the JDBC URL for the SingleStore driver, which contains the necessary connection properties.

     The following connection properties are required in order to connect to data.

     • Server: The host name or IP of the server hosting the SingleStore database.
     • Port: The port of the server hosting the SingleStore database.
     • Database (Optional): The default database to connect to when connecting to the SingleStore Server. If this is not set, tables from all databases will be returned.

     Connect Using Standard Authentication

     To authenticate using standard authentication, set the following:

     • User: The user which will be used to authenticate with the SingleStore server.
     • Password: The password which will be used to authenticate with the SingleStore server.

     Connect Using Integrated Security

     As an alternative to providing the standard username and password, you can set IntegratedSecurity to True to authenticate trusted users to the server via Windows Authentication.

     Connect Using SSL Authentication

     You can leverage SSL authentication to connect to SingleStore data via a secure session. Configure the following connection properties to connect to data:

     • SSLClientCert: Set this to the name of the certificate store for the client certificate. Used in the case of 2-way SSL, where truststore and keystore are kept on both the client and server machines.
     • SSLClientCertPassword: If a client certificate store is password-protected, set this value to the store's password.
     • SSLClientCertSubject: The subject of the TLS/SSL client certificate. Used to locate the certificate in the store.
     • SSLClientCertType: The certificate type of the client store.
     • SSLServerCert: The certificate to be accepted from the server.

     Connect Using SSH Authentication

     Using SSH, you can securely login to a remote machine. To access SingleStore data via SSH, configure the following connection properties:

     • SSHClientCert: Set this to the name of the certificate store for the client certificate.
     • SSHClientCertPassword: If a client certificate store is password-protected, set this value to the store's password.
     • SSHClientCertSubject: The subject of the TLS/SSL client certificate. Used to locate the certificate in the store.
     • SSHClientCertType: The certificate type of the client store.
     • SSHPassword: The password that you use to authenticate with the SSH server.
     • SSHPort: The port used for SSH operations.
     • SSHServer: The SSH authentication server you are trying to authenticate against.
     • SSHServerFingerPrint: The SSH Server fingerprint used for verification of the host you are connecting to.
     • SSHUser: Set this to the username that you use to authenticate with the SSH server.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

     For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the SingleStore JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.singlestore.jar
     

     Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

     👁 Using the built-in connection string designer to generate a JDBC URL (Salesforce is shown.)
     

     When you configure the JDBC URL, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

   Typical additional connection string properties follow:

   JDBC;MSTR_JDBC_JAR_FOLDER=PATH\TO\JAR\;DRIVER=cdata.jdbc.singlestore.SingleStoreDriver;URL={jdbc:singlestore:User=myUser;Password=myPassword;Database=NorthWind;Server=myServer;Port=3306;};
   

   👁 Configuring the connection to SingleStore data using JDBC.
   
6. Ensure that you have not selected an ODBC data source (this will trigger MicroStrategy to use the additional connection string parameters to build the database instance) and click OK.
7. Click OK to close the database instance wizard.
8. In the Project Source, right-click the project and open the Project configuration.
9. Navigate to Database Instances, select the newly created database instance, and click OK. 👁 Adding the new database instance to the project.
   
10. Close MicroStrategy Developer and restart the connected MicroStrategy Intelligence Server to complete the database instance creation.

With the database instance configured, you will now be able to connect to SingleStore data from the Warehouse Catalog and Data Import.

Connect to SingleStore Data from the Warehouse Catalog

Once you have created a database instance based on the JDBC Driver for SingleStore, you can connect to data from the Warehouse Catalog.

1. Select your project and click Schema -> Warehouse Catalog. 👁 Creating the Warehouse Catalog
   
2. In the Read Settings for the Catalog, click Settings and set the queries to retrieve the schema:
   • To retrieve the list of tables, use the following query:

     SELECT 
      * 
     FROM 
      SYS_TABLES
      

   • To retrieve the list of columns for selected tables, use the following query:

     SELECT DISTINCT 
      CatalogName NAME_SPACE, 
      TableName TAB_NAME, 
      ColumnName COL_NAME, 
      DataTypeName DATA_TYPE, 
      Length DATA_LEN, 
      NumericPrecision DATA_PREC, 
      NumericScale DATA_SCALE 
     FROM 
      SYS_TABLECOLUMNS 
     WHERE 
      TableName IN (#TABLE_LIST#) 
     ORDER BY
      1,2,3
      

   👁 Custom metadata queries.
   
3. Select tables to be used in the project. 👁 Selecting tables to be used in the project.
   

Using the CData JDBC Driver for SingleStore in MicroStrategy, you can easily create robust visualizations and reports on SingleStore data. Read our other articles on connecting to SingleStore in MictroStrategy Web and connecting to SingleStore in MicroStrategy Desktop for more information.

Note: Connecting using a JDBC Driver requires a 3- or 4-Tier Architecture.